Category Archives: Anti-Semitism

January 27th marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The date, that of the liberation of Auschwitz, was chosen in 2005 by the United Nations to honor the memory of those who were slaughtered by the Nazis. It gives politicians all over the world the opportunity to give flowery, emotional speeches, pouring out affection toward the dear departed ones. Yes, it’s easy to love dead Jews. But living ones??! That’s another story altogether. And it doesn’t matter whether those Jews are in Israel or anywhere else. Hating them is back in vogue, seemingly everywhere.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day itself is now an excuse to vilify those dastardly Jews who refused to perish. Consider the following pearls of wisdom issued especially for the somber memorial:

• British politician, Lee Jasper of the Respect Party, posted on Facebook, “We are asked to remember that which Israel has forgotten, that religious and racial hatred is a sin against God.” He went on further to say, “Israel has failed to learn the lessons of its own tragic history having evolved into a racist oppressor.”

• Also in England, Liberal-Democrat MP David Ward just prior to International Holocaust Remembrance Day put on his website the following statement: “Having visited Auschwitz twice – once with my family and once with local schools – I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza.”

Even though he was reprimanded by his party, he replied, “I don’t feel bad about it in any way.” He also said his comments had received an “overwhelmingly positive” response from the public, with 80 unsolicited supportive emails, and just two from detractors.

• On Sunday, January 27, the very day of the International Holocaust Remembrance, The Sunday Times of London ran a vile cartoon by Gerald Scarfe entitled, Will Cementing Peace Continue? It featured PM Netanyahu with a scowl, an accentuated nose and a hunchback, reminiscent of Nazi caricatures of Jews. He was pictured building a wall made of bricks, blood and Palestinian body parts. This was a variation of the classic Jewish blood libel in which Jews through the centuries were accused of using the blood of young Christian boys to make their Passover matzah. Today many Arabs and Muslim extremists make the same accusations against us except that we’re now using young Arab boys.

• Mahmoud Abbas, our supposed peace partner, said in an interview with Al-Mayadeen, a Beirut TV station, “I challenge anyone to deny the relationship between Zionism and Nazism before WWII.” This confirming that he still believes what he wrote in his 1984 book, The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism: “a partnership was established between Hitler’s Nazis and the leadership of the Zionist movement” in which the Zionists gave “permission to every racist in the world, led by Hitler and the Nazis, to treat Jews as they wish, so long as it guarantees immigration to Palestine.”

Mr. Abbas’ PA-TV continues to spew out hate toward Jews (otherwise known as the descendants of apes and pigs) and yet none of this is reported in the mainstream media or is challenged by the US State Department or the Obama White House. Indeed, in spite of all this, the United States has made it clear that they are officially waiting for an Israeli coalition to form, so that negotiations can resume. The two-state solution cannot wait!

Are the above isolated incidents or are we witnessing a worldwide phenomenon?

The Israeli Ministry of Information and Diaspora has prepared a disturbing report on anti-Semitic trends in 2012 which stated that there was “an alarming rise in the number of terrorist attacks and attempted attacks against Jewish targets and an escalation in violent incidents against Jews throughout the world.” The perpetrators?… “primarily… groups which identify with radical Islam and the extreme right.” At the same time, the report found, there has also been an increase in the number of street attacks and incidents of verbal and physical violence against Jews, in Europe as well as in the U.S., Canada and Australia.

The conclusion of the matter in my opinion is this: those who hate God hate Jews, even if it’s disguised as antipathy toward Israel. It doesn’t matter whether the haters call themselves secular, progressive or “religious.” Yes, one can be religious and not know or love God Himself. Even worse, one can be a worshiper of a “deity” who in reality is a demon, even Satan himself, and whose religion is falsely praised as a “religion of peace.”

The spiritual battle lines are being drawn between light and darkness and it would behoove each of us to make sure he/she is on the right side of history and of eternity.

Allow me to introduce you to the fine art of covering one’s tuchus (Yiddish for “posterior”). Here’s how it works. A public figure makes outrageous or hateful comments and when it looks like there may be some kind of consequence for his/her behavior, out comes the cover.

A couple of current favorites: it was a poor choice of words; my comment was taken out of context. Does it work? Depends. In the eyes of the mainstream media and those who don’t care about the issue, absolutely yes! The offender is automatically absolved of all his past sins. He’s a changed man who is a staunch moderate now. Uh-huh!

However for those who care or who have the courage to look a little more closely, the cover-ups are about as effective as those stupid hospital examination gowns with the split up the back. You do your best to keep them closed to guard your privacy, but any wrong move and they fly open and you’re horrified. Oh well, we all knew what was under there anyway. And we should know what’s under the façade of several dignitaries we’re being pushed to embrace these days.

First is President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt. Let’s hear what he has said publicly as recently as 2010:

January 10, 2010Dear brothers, we must not forget to nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred toward those zionists and Jews and all those who support them. They must be nursed on hatred. The hatred must continue.

March 20, 2010The Zionists have no right to the land of Palestine. There is no place for them on the land of Palestine. What they took before 1947-8 constitutes plundering, and what they are doing now is a continuation of this plundering. By no means do we recognize their Green Line. The land of Palestine belongs to the Palestinians, not to the Zionists.

September 23, 2010No reasonable person can expect any progress on this track. Either [you accept] the Zionists and everything they want, or else it is war. This is what these occupiers of the land of Palestine know – these blood-suckers, who attack the Palestinians, these warmongers, the descendants of apes and pigs.

I would venture to say that the meaning is clear. The guy simply hates Jews and refuses to recognize the state of Israel, no matter which borders we talk about. But wait! Morsi just told a delegation of U.S. senators visiting Cairo on Wednesday that his remarks needed to be put “in the context in which they were said.”What context? Israeli “aggression”of course, against the poor innocent Palestinians in Gaza. As usual, it’s the Jews’ fault. We somehow even managed to be responsible for the constant barrage of Hamas rockets raining down on Israeli citizens over the course of many years. Those babies and kindergarten kids aren’t really civilians, you know; they’ll grow up to become soldiers and that makes them legitimate targets.

Evidently the “out of context” justification placated the Senators sufficiently so the delegation will still push for an additional $480 million in assistance to help Egypt’s ailing economy. Magically Mr. Morsi has morphed into a dignified statesman, worthy of U.S. assistance. He’ll most likely be getting tanks and planes, too, to fight off those “descendants of apes and pigs.”

Then there’s Chuck Hagel, nominated on January 7th to be President Obama’s Secretary of Defense. Seems Mr. Hagel has a serious Jewish problem.

• October, 2000 – while Israel was under unrelenting attack, Hagel was one of only 4 Senators who refused to sign a Senate letter in support of Israel.

• November, 2001 – Hagel was one of only 11 Senators who refused to sign a letter urging President Bush not to meet with terror chieftain Arafat until he ended terror activity against Israel.

• June, 2004 – Hagel refused to sign a letter urging President Bush to highlight Iran’s nuclear program at the G-8 summit.

• December, 2005 – Hagel refused to sign a letter to President Bush to pressure the Palestinian Authority to ban terrorist groups from participating in Palestinian legislative elections.

• August, 2006 – Hagel was one of only twelve U.S. Senators who failed to sign a bipartisan letter calling on the European Union to add Hezbollah to its list of terrorist organizations.

• Perhaps the most egregious of Hagel’s actions was his 2006 interview with Aaron David Miller where he’s quoted as saying, “The political reality is … that the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here.”

• Hagel also serves as Chairman of the Atlantic Council, a foreign policy blog. In mid-December the Atlantic Council published a front page article titled “Israel’s Apartheid Policy.” While Mr. Hagel only serves on the Board of Directors and is not involved in writing the articles, labeling Israel’s policy as apartheid borders on anti-Semitism. It is both false and disingenuous but no apology or retraction was offered.

Four days after Hagel was nominated (Jan. 11), Charles Schumer, the third most senior Senate Democratic leader expressed reservations and said it would be hard for him to support the nominee. Shortly after, Hagel sent a letter of apology to Senator Barbara Boxer calling his statement about the Jewish Lobby “a very poor choice of words.” What about everything else? And notice he didn’t actually apologize for anything.

The tepid excuse and a personal meeting with Hagel were enough to mollify Senator Schumer and on January 15th he announced that he would not only vote for Hagel to be confirmed as Secretary of Defense, but would urge his colleagues to do likewise.

The “My comments were taken out of context” and “a poor choice of words” excuses are only effective for those who choose not to see. Unfortunately for us, the intelligentsia, so-called “experts” and “important people” are among the willfully blind. “We the people” must dig for the truth ourselves.

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32

Like many of you, I was raised in a liberal Jewish home in America where I was taught – or rather absorbed from the atmosphere around me – two supposedly immutable facts. First, that Islam is one of the three great monotheistic religions. Second, that the Western world in general and the United States in particular have become safe havens for Jews. Never again will there be danger of a holocaust; the countries of the “enlightened” West are much too advanced for barbarity like that to raise its ugly head again. I’ll deal with the “Islam as a great monotheistic religion” issue in a future post, but today I want to tear away the façade of “the West as a sanctuary.”

It seems that almost every “progressive” still idolizes Europe and wishes to remake America in its mold. European culture as seen through their eyes is so marvelously civilized as opposed to American garishness; the gentleman vs. the cowboy. How could ancient Jew-hatred rear its ugly head in such a multi-cultural paradise?

Sweden, once an idyllic land of lovely landscapes and peaceful, crime-free towns has become the become the rape capital of the world. Why? Massive Muslim immigration! For the same reason Swedish Jews have begun running for their lives, realizing that the government in which they trusted is unable or unwilling to protect them. Evidently Muslim Jew-hatred has emboldened the home grown variety of haters to express themselves openly without fear of punishment.

Norway, known for its breathtaking fjords, northern lights and midnight sun is no longer the home of the brave Vikings. Forget bravery and standing up for their own values. It’s so passé to think that one’s own country or values are exceptional in today’s world. And so, Norway has, for all intents and purposes, surrendered to the Islamist tyranny that arrived on its shores with Muslim immigration. Rather than assimilate into Norwegian society and culture, these new-comers aspire to take over – Allah’s kingdom must rule over all the earth! And the Jews are fleeing.

The “Emerald Green Isle” is no longer the innocent home of leprechauns and pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. Ireland is now infamous as the “most hostile country in Europe.” Not a comfortable place for Jews…
All of Europe is sliding toward that same precipice, from which I fear there is no return, and European Jews need to have their suitcases packed and not convince themselves that everything will be alright.

What about the U.S.? For now it’s still a somewhat safe haven for Jews, but that status is getting wobbly and it’s by no means guaranteed to remain as such into the foreseeable future.

Our president has chosen as his best international friend an unabashed Islamist who hates both Israel and the U.S.
Islamists are working overtime to convince the American public, whom they see as good-natured idiots, that Islam isn’t so bad after all. A new TV show endeavors to present Muslims as regular folks who just want to make a living and be happy, like you or me. Violence? Jihad? We must be imagining things about the “religion of peace.”

Finally, Muslims understand rightly that the last bastion of support for Israel and the Jewish people is the believing church, particularly in the U.S. By portraying Palestinians as the oppressed under-dogs and the Israelis as oppressors, “moderate” Muslim groups are attempting to peel off support from Christians. And to a certain extent they’re succeeding. Only the groups whose roots are deeply in the Scriptures, who love the God of Israel and who are willing to be stigmatized as ignorant, heartless buffoons will be unmoved by these appeals.

This is a challenge for those of you who call yourselves “Christians.” Where will you stand when the going gets rough (and make no mistake about it, it will!)? And for my Jewish readers – are you willing to recognize and appreciate our friends and not ascribe ulterior motives to them? These brave souls stand with us because of a relationship with our God, something all of us might want to emulate.

The year is approximately 540 BCE. Belshazzar, king of the great Babylonian Empire is hosting an opulent feast for 1000 of his lords. Oriental monarchs frequently indulged in extravaganzas like this one with the sole purpose of showing off their wealth, their power, their wives or anything else they could think of to make others think they were the greatest human beings (maybe even bordering on the divine) to ever walk the earth. But Belshazzar made two fatal mistakes. First, he was so mesmerized by the myth he had created about himself that he was oblivious to the storm that was brewing around him. Even worse – he messed with the God of Israel. He and his entourage decided it would be a really cool thing to bring out the gold cups and other vessels that had been looted from the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and use them to toast the power of the king and the greatness of his pagan gods. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote what was, to all those assembled in the hall, an unintelligible message. The mood in the room changed from drunken festivity to utter terror. The only one able to interpret the message was the prophet Daniel. This is what it said…

God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting Your kingdom has been divided… (Dan. 5:26-28)

That very night the king was assassinated and his kingdom was handed over to others.

Is the handwriting on the wall of our world today? Are our leaders, like King Belshazzar, blithely going along, too enchanted by the fantasies of their own making to pay attention to the looming catastrophe that may not be as far in the future as many of them hope? More direly – are more and more people and nations messing with the God of Israel? Scripture warns, he who touches you (Israel and the Jewish people) touches the apple of His (God’s) eye. (Zech. 2:8)

• Is a worldwide cataclysm brewing in Iran? A report issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) shows strong, “credible” evidence that Iran is building a nuclear weapon. Rather than being a shock, this was simply confirmation of facts that have been known but ignored or withheld for a long time. According to Caroline Glick, “Since Iran’s nuclear weapons program was first revealed to the public in 2004, Israel has provided in-depth intelligence information proving Iran’s malign intentions to the likes of Sarkozy, Obama and the UN.”

Won’t sanctions and diplomacy work? NO! First of all, we’re not dealing with rational, albeit evil, political leaders. The Iranian mullahs and their puppet, Ahmadinejad, are demonically-driven, fanatical theocrats whose ambition is to bring about the apocalypse so that the long-awaited 12th imam will come to earth. No big deal if most of their nation perishes in the process!! And now it seems that they have China on their side. According to Fox News, “The Chinese-Iranian relationship has, in fact, been deepening over the last few years.”

So what are Israel’s options? Will she “go it alone” against Iran in what would be a very risky mission? Many feel such actions would precipitate a regional war involving Hezbollah and Hamas along with Iran. Analysts predict that in the event of such a war, the cost of a barrel of oil could dramatically rise to $175 – $200 a barrel. This would not only inflame passions against Israel but against the Jewish people as a whole. It doesn’t take much to arouse Jew-hatred these days. Remember Israel’s Operation Cast Lead offensive in December 2008/January 2009? What was a totally justifiable action meant to protect innocent civilians in the south of the country from incessant rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza became an excuse for virulent world-wide demonstrations against the “hateful Jews”. For an excellent power point of the anti-Semitic repercussions of Cast Lead, click here and then click on General (in the right hand column and then click on January 2009 – In the wake of Operation Cast Lead). Then there’s this Youtube video of a female Hamas sympathizer in Fort Lauderdale screaming at Jewish people “go back to the oven.”

• Is the world poking God in the eye by their treatment of Israel and its leaders? No one claims that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is any kind of a prophet or a holy man – but he is the representative of the nation, and when he is the recipient of undeserved antagonism it’s a symptom of a deeper problem. While we hear empty rhetoric claiming, “Israel remains our important partner and key strategic ally,” the truth comes out from behind closed doors. The following exchange took place during a break at the G20 summit in Cannes, France. Presidents Sarkozy and Obama thought the mics were turned off and were having a confidential little chat about Bibi.

Sarkozy: “I can’t stand to see him any more, he’s a liar.”
Obama: “You are fed up with him, but me, I have to deal with him every day.”
The White House refused to confirm or deny the exchange between the two.

Far from being an aberration, the above unscripted comment is part of a continual pattern of disrespect from President Obama. When Prime Minister Netanyahu came to the White House in March 2010, he was given third-world treatment. Obama followed that up at various times by outrageous demands. Israel should cease all construction in Judea and Samaria and in East Jerusalem, even on land that is not being contested. And Israel should begin discussions with the PA based on a return to the pre-1967 borders, also known as the “Auschwitz Borders.” Obviously this is the most anti-Israel president the U.S. has ever had!

• Is the handwriting on the wall in the U.S.? Not yet to the extent that it is in Europe but universities, the institutions that are training the next generation of national leaders, reek with Jew-hatred.

On October 28 at Kent State University, Professor Julio Pino felt obligated to exercise his First Amendment right by shouting out “Death to Israel” at a lecture given by guest speaker, Ishmael Khaldi, a former Israeli consul official who is a Bedouin. Four days earlier Khaldi appeared at the University of Michigan where approximately 60 students walked out on his message. One of the leaders of the protest, Bilal Baydoun, was quoted in the Arab American News, “our goal is to preventsomeone like this from even arriving on campus in the first place and we feel confident that we will be able to accomplish this as we continue to spread awareness.” Free speech and free exchange of ideas on the university campus have become a thing of the past as Arab petro dollars increasingly flow in to fund these bastions of learning and as hard core leftists serve in tenured positions of power.

Pro-Islamic speakers can spout their venom with impunity at campus venues but even questions from the audience are carefully screened. When Gail Rubin, co-chair of the University of California Davis chapter of StandwithUs, a pro-Israel organization, attempted to challenge lecturer Professor Gilbert Achcar’s skewed opinion that the Grand Mufti’s (Haj Amin al-Husseini) anti-Semitism had only a minimal impact on both Jews and Arabs, two professors angrily told her“the questions were insulting and to either stop or leave the room.” As she described it, “So much for free speech and scholarly discourse in academia.”

• Incitement eventually leads to violence. This past Friday (November 11) residents of Flatbush, Brooklyn were awakened to find that three cars had been torched and the area had been defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti.

The big danger in the western world is that it’s easy to become so comfortable or so involved in our daily lives that we simply pass everything off thinking things have to get better – it’ll all go away eventually. But maybe it won’t.

As tens of thousands of demonstrators march through the streets of Europe, the chants are modified but the message remains substantially intact: ‘Hamas, Hamas, Hamas — Jews to the Gas’. Or, more simply: ‘Death to the Jews’. Many European Jews, even well-established, affluent Jews, have been checking the suitcasethey keep packed under the bed. They have been here before and many are (albeit reluctantly) reading the writing on the wall.

The writing on the wall may be a little more faint in the U.S., but perhaps it’s time we begin reading it.

Friday, September 9. A crowd of Egyptians began demolishing the concrete wall around the Israeli Embassy in Cairo. The police did almost nothing to protect embassy personnel. Eighty diplomats and their families were evacuated and flown to Israel. Meanwhile the six Israeli staffers who remained had to be rescued by an Egyptian commando force after the “heroic resistance fighters” had taken over the embassy and trashed everything in sight. Terrible, you say? Not really…after all, Israel was the provocateur. How? They dared to put an embassy full of Jews right in the heart of Cairo!! Isn’t that enough to make any Islamist’s blood boil?

And the blood is definitely boiling on the other side of our border. On Thursday, September 15, Egypt’s Prime Minister Essam Sharaf hinted ominously in an interview, “The Camp David agreement is not a sacred thing and is always open to discussion with what would benefit the region and the case of fair peace … and we could make a change if needed.” As a result, the Egyptian ambassador to Israel, Yasser Reda, was summoned to Israel’s Foreign Ministry office. He had a little ‘splainin’ to do.

Then there’s our “good friend” Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He decided to expel the Israeli Ambassador and blame Israel for all the troubles in the world. Again, as usual, Israel was the provocateur. After all, nasty, stubborn Bibi refused to “apologize” to Erdogan for legally stopping the Turkish Mavi Marmara ship, killing nine “poor defenseless peace activists” on board. The iron pipes and clubs the activists were using to beat the Israeli soldiers were merely symbolic weapons. No need to resort to physical force; the soldiers could have simply spoken sweetly and peacefully to the raging mob surrounding them and everything would have been fine and dandy!

While some in Israel seem surprised by the deteriorating relationship with Turkey Caroline Glick reminds us, “Those Israelis who lament the slower-paced phased breakdown of the honeymoon with Turkey need to recall that it hasn’t been sweet for almost a decade, ever since Erdogan’s Islamist party’s electoral victory of 2002. That marked a strategic shift in Turkey’s agenda, and there was little Israel could do about it, short of acceding to Erdogan’s every whim.”

Evidently Israel is a constant and unparalleled provocation to the UN and its peace-loving and fair-minded constituency. On Thursday, September 22 the UN General Assembly will convene Durban III, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Durban I conference which took place in 2001 in South Africa. Ostensibly the purpose of the conference is to combat “racism” but in reality the only country to be singled out for censure, hate and vitriol is Israel. Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will be a featured speaker. In 2009 addressing the Durban II conference in Geneva, Switzerland, he labeled Israel the “most cruel and repressive racist regime.” In what is most likely a preview of this year’s uplifting message, Ahmadinejad spoke with the Washington Post and referred to Zionism as “a dreadful party, a feared party.” He then claimed that the movement “was behind the First World War and the Second World War. Whenever there is a conflict or war — this party is behind it.” He also accused the United States of sacrificing its “whole population” for “the interests of a few hundred Zionists.” Many in American academia agree. Fifteen members of the Columbia International Relations Council and Association (CIRCA) were invited to a September 21 pre-conference event in Manhattan, according to the school newspaper. The meeting will reportedly allow for the students to dine and speak with Ahmadinejad. Suddenly the madman is a pop star!

Finally, in response to Israeli “provocation” (read – existence) on Friday September 23, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will go before the UN Security Council and formally request membership of a Palestinian state. He said in a speech in Ramala, “We seek to gain membership in the UN on the basis of the 1967 borders so that we could afterward return to the negotiations on a clear and internationally recognized reference.” As I have said many times before in my blogs, Abbas has purposely avoided meaningful negotiations with Israel and has planned all along to circumvent the process and go directly to the UN. Why? 1. He will never acknowledge Israel as a Jewish State. 2. The new Palestinian State will be Judenrein – free of all Jews. 3. He is insisting on the right of return for some five million “so called” displaced Palestinians to Israel. 4. His real goal is to “liberate all of Palestine,” from the river (Jordan) to the sea (Mediterranean).

In my humble opinion, since Israel will be considered the “Provocateur-in-Chief” no matter what we do, we should take a stand, do what has to be done to defend ourselves and not worry about our so-called standing with the rest of the world. Americans and others who haven’t yet bowed their knee at the altar of political correctness or global jihad will stand with us.